SpaceX CRS-21


SpaceX CRS-21, also known as SpX-21, is a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station planned to be launched on 30 October 2020. The mission is contracted by NASA and will be flown by SpaceX using a. This will be the first flight for SpaceX under NASA's CRS Phase 2 contract awarded in January 2016.

Cargo Dragon

SpaceX plans to reuse the Cargo Dragons up to five times. The Cargo Dragon will launch without seats, cockpit controls, the life support system required to sustain astronauts in space and SuperDraco abort engines. This newer design provides several benefits, including a faster process to recover, refurbish and re-fly versus the earlier Dragon CRS design used for ISS cargo missions.
While CRS-21 is currently planned to be a standard 30-day mission, the most recent Flight Planning Integration Panel document indicates that beginning with CRS-23, SpaceX cargo missions will begin to stretch out to the 60-day and beyond mark.
Beginning with the CRS-21 mission, the new Dragon Cargo capsules will splash down under parachutes in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida, rather than the current recovery zone in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California. This was a NASA preference, added to CRS-2.

Primary payload

NASA contracted for the CRS-21 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date of launch, and orbital parameters for the Cargo Dragon.
Bishop, formerly known as NanoRacks Airlock Module, is a small commercial airlock module attached to Node 3 of the ISS. The NanoRacks Airlock Module will offer five times the satellite deployment volume than current opportunities available today. Nanoracks is the prime contractor, with Thales Alenia Space building the pressurized shell and Boeing providing the berthing mechanism.
The CubeSats planned for this mission are BeaverCube, RamSat, and PTD-2.